


Least Said, Soonest Mended

by amillionand1fandoms



Category: The Scarlet Letter - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 17:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12611268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amillionand1fandoms/pseuds/amillionand1fandoms
Summary: Here she is, the immutable proof of his sin, holding out her arms imperiously to be lifted.





	Least Said, Soonest Mended

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this several years ago for an assignment in a Literature class, but I came across it again and didn't hate it. So I thought that, since it's technically fanfiction, I might as well post it here.

The little girl seems to glow with childlike enthusiasm as she teeters across the road on legs that have only just learned to hold her when she catches Arthur's attention. She is all alone, so the minister casts a cursory glance for her mother but Hester is nowhere in sight. When he looks back to the child, she is inspecting a pavement stone as if it holds the answers to all life’s questions. Perhaps it does, thinks the Minister, when viewed with the naivety of one so young. He takes a longer look around for Pearl’s mother– _surely she would not let such a young girl go off on her own_ –but she is still nowhere to be seen.

“Up!” Arthur glances down and finds himself staring into sparkling blue eyes. While he was distracted the girl has made her way over to him and is now demanding to be lifted. He has only ever seen her from afar, but here she is, the immutable proof of his sin, holding out her arms imperiously to be lifted.

Unsure of how respond, Arthur freezes and the moment seems to stretch painfully. He doesn't wish to follow her demand and give anyone a reason to connect the two in their minds. Yet, if he refuses to pick her up, will the child make a scene? Whatever he chooses, he doesn’t dare let on that Pearl bears anything more than a passing interest to him. Already he is continuously surprised that his parishioners do not see him in her. Surely, that is his nose, his pale fingers. Surely, that smile is the spitting image of his mother’s. Surely- the strained moment is broken as the child’s mother rushes in with a cry and scoops up her daughter, removing any need for a response at all.

“I apologize Minister,” Hester says, fussing with Pearl’s dress rather than look him in the eye, “She keeps running off whenever I turn my back. I hope she wasn’t bothering you.” She straightens up, and now he is the one to avert his gaze.

“It was no bother at all,” he murmurs in reply, his regard now fixed on the scarlet letter gleaming on her dress. Silently he marvels that she wears it so openly, seemingly without shame or fear or regret. She was always the stronger one of them. The silence stretches out slightly longer than politeness dictates, seeming to hold any number of unsaid words and darkest secrets, before Hester ends it.

“Good day, Minister,” She murmurs, bobbing her head. She takes the child _(his child)_ by the hand and leads her away, no more concerned than befits such an exchange of words between acquaintances. He stares after them a moment longer, woman and child, the two proofs of his greatest sin, then he, too, turns and heads for home.

He does not look back.


End file.
